The present invention generally relates to an apparatus for transporting articles which are acted upon in at least one processing station and, more particularly, to such an apparatus which transfers the articles from an endless conveyor to the processing station and back to the endless conveyor.
Apparatus for transporting articles which are acted upon in at least one processing station are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,356,061 describes an apparatus comprising an endless conveyor having a number of regularly spaced pendants, each of which is adapted to receive an article hanger supporting an article. The endless conveyor is continuously driven to permit the conveyor to move the articles past a set of spray guns, which serve to spray coat the articles. Because this apparatus does not provide a mechanism for rotating articles during spraying, this apparatus is disadvantageous for coating articles having irregular outer surfaces. Furthermore, because the articles are vertically oriented during spraying rather than being horizontally oriented, the quality of the surface finish on each completed workpiece may be less than satisfactory.
A further apparatus for transporting articles which are acted upon in at least one processing station is known in the art. This apparatus comprises a rotatable ring carrier which vertically supports a plurality of workpieces thereon and transfers the workpieces through a spraying station and into a curing station. This apparatus is also disadvantageous because it does not provide for workpiece rotation during spraying, and the workpieces are vertically oriented rather than being horizontally oriented during spraying.
Accordingly, a need exists for an alternative apparatus for transporting articles which are acted upon in at least one processing station. An approach is desired in which the apparatus permits each workpiece to be horizontally oriented and while being acted upon in a processing station.